Log in Start free

Vulnerability · Published Feb 26, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2022-49546x86/kexec: fix memory leak of elf header buffer

Medium 5.5

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 20% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 79.7% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/kexec: fix memory leak of elf header buffer This is reported by kmemleak detector: unreferenced object 0xffffc900002a9000 (size 4096): comm "kexec", pid 14950, jiffies 4295110793 (age 373.951s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .ELF............ 04 00 3e 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..>............. backtrace: [<0000000016a8ef9f>] __vmalloc_node_range+0x101/0x170 [<000000002b66b6c0>] __vmalloc_node+0xb4/0x160 [<00000000ad40107d>] crash_prepare_elf64_headers+0x8e/0xcd0 [<0000000019afff23>] crash_load_segments+0x260/0x470 [<0000000019ebe95c>] bzImage64_load+0x814/0xad0 [<0000000093e16b05>] arch_kexec_kernel_image_load+0x1be/0x2a0 [<000000009ef2fc88>] kimage_file_alloc_init+0x2ec/0x5a0 [<0000000038f5a97a>] __do_sys_kexec_file_load+0x28d/0x530 [<0000000087c19992>] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [<0000000066e063a4>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae In crash_prepare_elf64_headers(), a buffer is allocated via vmalloc() to store elf headers. While it's not freed back to system correctly when kdump kernel is reloaded or unloaded. Then memory leak is caused. Fix it by introducing x86 specific function arch_kimage_file_post_load_cleanup(), and freeing the buffer there. And also remove the incorrect elf header buffer freeing code. Before calling arch specific kexec_file loading function, the image instance has been initialized. So 'image->elf_headers' must be NULL. It doesn't make sense to free the elf header buffer in the place. Three different people have reported three bugs about the memory leak on x86_64 inside Redhat.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux5.18.5-1DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49546
Debian:13linux5.18.5-1DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49546
Debian:14linux5.18.5-1DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux5.15.0-47.51UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws5.15.0-1019.23UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure5.15.0-1019.24UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp5.15.0-1017.23UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gke5.15.0-1015.18UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeop5.15.0-1002.4UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibm5.15.0-1013.15UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotg5.15.0-1015.20UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvm5.15.0-1017.21UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency5.15.0-47.53UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia5.15.0-1007.7UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle5.15.0-1017.22UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspi5.15.0-1014.16UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49546

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux dd5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a – before 23cf39dccf7653650701a6f39b119e9116a27f1add5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a – before 8765a423a87d74ef24ea02b43b2728fe4039f248dd5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a – before 115ee42a4c2f26ba2b4ace2668a3f004621f6833dd5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a – before f675e3a9189d84a9324ab45b0cb19906c2bc8fcbdd5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a – before b3e34a47f98974d0844444c5121aaff123004e57
Linux Linux 3.17

References